Soviet Asked Kennedy To Lobby For His Wife

MOSCOW — Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., in a previously undisclosed meeting with Moscow ``refuseniks,`` was asked to lobby Soviet leadership on behalf of a cancer-stricken woman seeking treatment abroad, her husband said Monday.

Naum Meiman, a mathematician first refused permission to emigrate in 1975, said Kennedy was interested in his plight but ``could not tell us something pleasant.`` Meiman`s news conference for Western correspondents came less than a week after the Soviet government released Jewish activist Anatoly Shcharansky, jailed for nine years on espionage charges. Few refuseniks said they believe it signals a change in Kremlin emigration policy.

``The Soviet authorities refuse my wife permission to leave for treatment,`` Meiman said he told Kennedy, who left Moscow Feb. 7 after meeting Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. ``It would be different if you personally addressed Mr. Gorbachev,`` Meiman said in a letter presented to the Massachusetts Democrat. ``He would find it hard to disregard you.``